Guarding Lore Part One: Taureith's Story
by wholocked2017
Summary: Lord of the Rings Online becomes real when players become trapped in the game.
1. Prologue

Prologue

I drop my keys into the glass bowl on the kitchen table. Classes are finally done for the week and I am ready for the weekend Grabbing a ham and cheese sandwich from the fridge, I take my snack back into my small bedroom. I flip on the light and survey the room. A large desk sits next to a bed-sized silver tube in one corner while a small twin-sized bed lies against the wall next to the door. A smaller laptop computer rest on the bed, dwarfed in comparison to the three-screened gaming system on the desk.

I toss my heavy backpack onto the bed and take a bite of the sandwich. Ham and cheese is not my favorite but it will do for now. As I finish eating, I turn the gaming system on and let it boot up before I use the one on the bed to check my messages. Nothing new requires my immediate attention so I shut down that computer. I check the progress of the boot up and see that everything is ready to go. A silver icon with a black VRTA acronym hovers in a corner. Upon selection, a window appears saying "begin sequence", so I press my hand against the top of the silver tube. It opens with a quiet hiss of the hydraulics and the top raises clear of the main tube area. There is a semblance of a bed inside the tube as a small cushion resembling a pillow rests on one end and the bottom is lightly padded. A silver circlet rests on the pillow, which I pick up to settle on my brow.

I check that all of the cords are connecting the tube to the computer. As I climb inside to settle myself I feel my phone vibrate and pull it out. I have a new message:

READY?

I send a READY back and place the phone on the desk. I tap a small button on the top half of the silver tube and the lid gently descends and clicks in place. I have just enough room inside to move my arm to touch the cold metal around my head. I depress a small raised area on the circlet and it shrinks to fit snugly around my skull. I settle my hands in small depressions on each side of my body and make sure my feet are also resting in their own marked areas.

"Launch program 2-1-5-L-O-T-R-O." I say aloud and close my eyes.

A burst of white light flashes past my eyelids. Icons hover before me, as if they were on an invisible computer screen, showing my information and previous data. I login to the network and a banner appears in front of me.

WELCOME PLAYER

TO

LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE


	2. Starting Day

Starting Day

I snap my head up as a horn bleats out a message across the city, paruuum paruuum. It repeats twice more before fading into silence. Four bleats means a warning for the occupants of the city...enemies are approaching!

I quickly finish trading out my loot for money and glance around the dimly lit room. Various merchants and people obscure my vision as they go about their business buying and selling goods from this small indoor market. Finally, I see a man standing next to the weapons merchant on the other side of the room. A large wooden Guardian's shield rests on his left forearm and a new one-handed blade is gripped tightly in his right hand. He looks over at me and I nod as I walk away from the task giver's table. The man hands over some coins to the merchant and joins me as we walk out of the market and onto the street. We step out into the sunlight and his long teal, silver, white, and black cape swirls around us a light breeze blows through the small village. His cosmetic outfit matches the cape and fits his trim athletic form very nicely. His slightly past shoulder length, dark brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail with a worn strip of leather, framing a handsome human face.

"What do you think the threat is this time?" he says. "Mauraders? Goblins? Orcs?"

"I have heard stories of orcs being seen in these areas." I reply, "But one never knows until the enemies appears."

"The Orcs do seem to grow bolder as we travel farther away from Bree." The man tells me as we quickly walk through the streets towards the main gates. "Maybe they have decided that they want to surrender to our overwhelming might and prowess."

"They are more prominent here because we are advancing into harder areas as we level up, Sar." I reply.

The man, Sarung, smiles and shakes his head.

"I was trying to have some fun with you." He replies.

"You'll have to try harder than that." I say, giving him a smile in response.

We turn around a corner and meet up with some other fighters along with a few other players who happen to be in the area. We greet one another and I take a quick assessment of the group's strengths and weaknesses as we walk. There are two Hunter class players and a Minstrel class here besides Sarung and me. The Hunters can do ranged damage and the Minstrel can do healing magic if needed. It is a fairly well balanced group and we should easily be able to face whatever is causing the alarm to be sounded.

Everyone walks the rest of the way together and discusses strategies on how to arrange ourselves outside the wall surrounding the village. I summon my lynx companion, Espresso, to my side. His pelt is almost black with a few flecks of white in it. Espresso is the smaller of my two pets, the other being a bear, but he can deal damage over time. We already have a few tank players with us to take the brunt of the damage, so the lynx is a better option for this fight. All of my pets guard me or can be told to be aggressive against any foes in the area.

I glance up towards my right and see my name and morale and power bars displayed there. Just under my name is Espresso's bars along with our combined buffs and debuffs. I also see Sarung's name hovering just below Espresso's with his status as well. At level 25 I have just over 1,000 morale points while he, at level 26, has almost 2,000. I can make up for some, if not all, of this difference by using pets like Espresso. Unlike my morale, however, my power capacity is greater than his is. This is normal for the Lore Master class. I have the ability to use magic to fight my enemies instead of a sword or shield so I go through much more power in a shorter time span. Sarung's Guardian class is a tanking class designed to take the brunt of the damage as he fights on the forefront of the battle to engage the enemies with his shield and do light damage while others deal heavier blows.

It is interesting to be in a virtual world that is so different from the real one. The two of us make a good team, and have been fighting side by side since he began this game a few days ago. We are dating in real life and he decided to join me in the game. It has been a couple of days of play for him so far though I have been playing for two months already. I waited for him to catch up a bit in levels so we could take on the same regions and both receive XP. Otherwise, if we were in an area at my level he wouldn't be able to deal any damage for a while or I would not receive any XP in areas at his level.

Once he was at a close enough level, we joined up in Bree and had moved south and east into the Lone Lands along the main road. Between the two of us, we were quickly finishing the quests and deeds given to us by the NPCs in the area. The times when we are constantly running back and forth delivering messages are very annoying, but the XP is we gain is worth it in the end.

I remember those easy times well as I activate all of my combat buffs and debuffs as well as set Espresso's status to guard mode for both Sarung and myself. Now that we were deep in the Lone Lands, the monsters and creatures we face are harder to take out since everything requires several hits to kill them. I hope that this group of enemies will not be too large; else, someone might end up dying and have to be ported to the safe zone a few minutes run away from our current position. That places more stress on our fight as we would be down a player and would have to try to keep fighting while we wait for them to run back to the fight. Sometimes the portals are nearby and other times they transport you halfway across the map.

We reach the main gates and all of the players take up a defensive stance towards the middle of the group of fighters with Sarung standing in front and to the left of me. His cape stirs gently in the breeze and wraps itself around his ankle. I tap him on the shoulder with my staff and indicate his ensnared foot. Sarung smiles and thanks me for letting him know as he bends down to untangle himself. At least I will not have that problem as I had the mind to keep my long caramel colored hair in a braid down my back so it will not get in my way as I fight. Like Sarung, I have left my cosmetic clothing equipped as most of the time the armor we wear looks ridiculous on a player's avatar. It doesn't look like I have any armor on, but it is still there in that it will protect me and give me the buffs I had worked into them by the tailor who crafted them for me. I prefer to stay in my black trousers and dark red shirt over the long robe that currently composes my armor. Sometimes I also wear a long black cloak, but the end can become wrapped around me or my staff and make fighting harder. The pants are much easier to move around in and when I wear the black hooded cloak, I look both dangerous and mysterious.

I scan the area ahead of us and my elf eyes catch a slight movement over the top of the hill across the road from our defensive position. I can make out the glint of a dozen or so helms as the afternoon sun glints off the metal. I call out a warning to everyone, review my list of skills, and add a few last minute buffs to my morale and power. Around a dozen orcs crest over the ridge opposite and bear down upon us as they quickly cross the road. They yell and shake their weapons as they come, trying to intimidate us into fleeing from the village.

The orcs out front are swiftly cut down by arrows released from the two Hunters' bows while the rest are quickly engaged by the NPCs in front carrying shields. I select several of the enemies nearby and raise my staff above my head. Lightening arcs down from a clear sky and touches the shard in the tip of my staff before breaking into six smaller bolts. Each branching streaks out to touch an orc and they are obliterated in a flash of electricity and fire.

A second and much larger wave of enemies launches themselves over the ridge towards us and I have a feeling that something is wrong. None of the packs of monsters ever moves like this unless you are in a special Instance. Even then, you are usually warned where the enemies are at. I send out Espresso to engage a few of the orcs while I lighten Sarung's load and take out three of the four orcs battering his shield. He finishes the fourth one off and gives me a quick sword salute in thanks before returning to the fray. Espresso leaps around and weaves his way between the fighters. He slashes at the legs of orcs and bites down limbs and throats as he can find purchase.

 _That little cat is a vicious fighter. He almost makes this too easy._

I feel a slight prickling sensation in my neck and instinctively turn around. I barely manage to duck under an orc sword as it curves towards my head. I bring up my staff and bat the sword away at the last second before bringing the base of the staff down hard across its face. Espresso returns to my side and slashes at the stunned orc before biting down on its neck until it moves no longer. I glance around for more enemies to engage, but it seems that the last of the orcs are being herded up and finished off by the NPCs.

"Twas a good fight, Taurieth." Sarung says to me after he twirls sword around and sheaths it.

"They do grow too bold for my liking." I reply, sheathing my staff in its holder across my back. "Still. It was only a small party. Nothing this city couldn't normally handle on its own."

"How much XP did you gain?"

I check my leveling bar.

"About 5,000. How did you do?"

"Almost 5,500 here." He replies after a quick spaced-out pause. "Makes it only 10,000 to the next level."

"That's good. Have those orcs come back twice more and you will be at level." I say with a smile.

"How much do you need to level up?"

I am about to reply when I notice that one of the orcs nearby is still twitching. I quickly bring my staff down upon his skull and the XP adds to my bar. A white beam of light surrounds me and my level changes from 25 to 26.

"That." I reply with a large grin.

"Cool." Sarung replies, his dark green eyes twinkling.

Sarung begins searching through his pending loot for anything of use to us. The other three players wave their goodbyes and start to head off in their separate directions. I walk over to the scorched circles, which are all that remain of those who had fallen to my lightening. Espresso sniffs the areas before rubbing across my legs as he flits in and out of visibility. I press my hand against his flank and heal his slightly depleted power even though I know it will replenish itself in a few minutes.

 _Those orcs were acting peculiarly. I have never seen them come in waves at a group of defenders before. They usually stay in a very predictable area or maintain a pattern of spawning. There is usually also a quest or skirmish that causes them to attack in such large numbers, but no one had an active quest for that area. Then again, I haven't done much exploring around here. Maybe the game-makers have different patterns set up in different areas to enhance gameplay. That would create more interest and add an element of surprise to the game if each area was unpredictable._

I finish my internal analysis of the attack as I walk towards the hilltop to make sure no more orcs are coming. I am just about to reach the road when I feel the vibrations of hoof beats shaking the ground beneath my feet. I look up the road and see a dust cloud growing in the distance. I use my elven sight to peer down the road and can almost make out individual riders. I can't tell if they are friend or foe and am about to call out a warning to Sarung about the approaching riders when I feel the tug of an Instance teleport pull at my back.

 _I didn't select an Instance and I didn't receive a request to join Sarung in one either. What is going on?_

I am just able to register this thought before the world goes dark and I feel that pull at my being as I am teleported to a different location in the game.

My vision swirls and I feel solid ground beneath my feet once more. The world swims into focus and I stagger around for balance. Rain falls lightly onto my face and a gust of wind pulls at my cloak. I pull up the hood and make sure my staff is still in its holster on my back. Weapons don't usually disappear in teleport, but I am always careful to reassure myself that it is still there whenever I materialize somewhere. None of my skills work without my staff and I don't have a spare in my item storage bags at the moment.

 _I really should remember to keep extras of my staff and armor in case my current ones become damaged in a fight. That would allow me to be able to stay alive longer and keep me playing without porting to a safe circle._

I make a mental note to save some gear next time I am near an armor dealer before taking stock of my current predicament. I am surrounded by dazed players who are all waist deep in tall grass. I see the three players from the Lone Lands who had fought with Sarung and I earlier but the other seven players I do not recognize. I happen to be standing atop a large boulder and can see Sarung coming too in a crumpled heap just below me. I hop down and help him to stand up as I try to figure out where we are at.

"Blasted headache." He says as he places a hand on the boulder to steady himself. "What was that, Taurieth?"

"Instance I guess." I reply, not entirely sure.

"I didn't pull one up. Did you?"

I shake my head.

 _So if neither of us called the Instance, then how did we end up in one?_

I climb back up the boulder and try to peer through the falling rain at our surroundings. I can see waves of blowing grass in every direction as if we were in some sort of prairie or highland area. The Lone Lands have short grass for the most part, but I think I remember Rohan was to have tall grass in its landscape. There are no buildings or other people in sight, so I am really beginning to wonder why there would be an instance here. Maybe the game had developed a bug, which is causing the dysfunctional Instance.

One of the other players, a Captain class I believe, calls out to the group. A hobbit NPC appeared in front of him with the details of our task.

"Many goblins have been seen around here of late, and they threaten to undermine the safety of the people." He says

 _What people? There is no one around._

"The twelve of you must band together to defeat our foes. If any should falter we will face almost certain defeat."

 _If having eleven players means failure, I don't see how one more can help all that much._

Most Instances are of one of two categories. You either defend a position against an assailing force or are to be the assailing force to attack an enemy stronghold. Defense is an easy enough task once you know where the enemies are coming from. Out here though, they could come from any and all directions. There are no defenses available besides each other. If we should be attacked on multiple fronts, it could go badly for us.

I scramble back up onto the top of the boulder so that I may have clear sight around us. I'll also be able to attack on any side and be able to heal everyone as well. The other players seem to understand my logic and arrange themselves in a circle around me with the NPC standing somewhere in the midst. I scan the perimeter and take up a ready position with my staff held across by body.

Espresso had been dismissed during the teleport so I call him back out. This time I tell him to be aggressive so he will attack anything that is deemed as a threat. He will be able to assist anyone in taking out a foe, which will make our jobs a bit easier. A few other pets appear from the two Captain classes and everyone is able to call upon their skirmish soldier to aid them in the battle. Our numbers increase from twelve players to have an additional twelve soldiers, two lynx (Espresso and another Lore Master's cat), and three banner guards from the three Captains present.

The first few creeps spawn and the goblins begin to mount their attack. Most of the other players are also above the level of the goblins and have no trouble dispatching them with ease. I assist with a sticky gourd throw that envelops several goblins in fire. A second wave of enemies appear and I am very surprised to see a few Angmarim join the goblins against us.

 _Why are there Angmarim with the goblins? They are men from the north. They don't usually go in the same areas as the goblins do. Unless we are much farther away from the Lone Lands than I had previously thought._

I push my thoughts aside and turn my attention to Sarung and a few players in engaging a group of 12 enemies. Fire rains down as I throw gourds and summon flames around them. The falling rain does nothing to put out the burning embers and the goblins quickly die. Espresso slashes and bites at the enemies as well, finishing off many as their morale drops. They men keep coming from all directions and the players are starting to feel the effects of the long battle.

I stop attacking for a few minutes and begin to heal several of the players around me. Some need power more than morale so I oblige and use my Share the Power skill to give them a boost. Using that skill costs morale on my part, but I drink an athelas potion to ward off my dropping health. There are so many men and goblins assailing us that the players cannot engage everyone and evade the worst of the damage. It is taking a massive toll and I can tell some of the players are starting to wear out.

I look down at Sarung and see he is still trying to go at it strong. His shield is taking a major beating though and I fear it may lose its integrity at any moment. I run a quick diagnostic on all of my equipment and see that nothing is close to being compromised and that my armor is still in peak durability. This helps me to make the decision to throw myself into the fray to try to deal some more damage to the enemies.

Leaping down, I stand shoulder to shoulder with Sarung and swing my staff at the helms of the Angmarim he is fighting. This gives Sarung enough time to power up an attack and shield bash the man into oblivion. We turn as one unit and engage the next enemy, a short goblin with a spear. Sarung catches the first spear throw on his shield and I zap the goblin with lightning as well as with a flaming gourd for good measure. The flames that erupt from the gourd engulf five other goblins as well and deal damage to each one of them. Espresso runs over and quickly finishes off the other burning ones and comes to stand by my side.

The sounds of fighting begin to fade away a while later as the third and final wave of enemies appears and is finished off. The NPC made it through the battle and he congratulates everyone before giving each player a choice of essences as their reward. I claim the athelas essences for myself as I rarely need more power but back up morale is always nice to have on hand.

I place the essences in my bags and pull up my list of pending loot. There are several task items available, but I am at full capacity for the groups they give reputation for. I could take them to a provisioner and receive silver coins for them if I had the extra bag space. I loot the essences and crafting scrolls there, and am surprised to see an adamant shard available. Shards of gemstones are used for crafting higher-level items and usually only drop from named bosses. I hadn't seen any bosses in the fight, but Espresso may have fought one with another player giving me the shard. I dismiss the other loot and add the items I took to my bags.

 _I will need find a bank here soon. My bags are almost full and could do with being emptied into my vault. Sarung is probably in the same way._

As if he could read my mind, Sarung comes over once he has finished looting the items he wants.

"I think we should go find a vault as soon as we are back. My bags are almost full. How are you doing on bag space?"

"I have about five slots open still, but the other four bags are filled." I reply.

"Then a vault is needed." He says with a smile. "Don't want you to be completely out of room."

"Like that ever happens." I say genuinely. I usually am able to empty my bags often enough that I never get them full.

The other players begin to disappear as they leave the instance. I select the NPC and request to travel out. I stand there waiting for the instance teleport to return me to the village where Sarung and I had been at before. The nearest vault to that area was in Bree, but we could run that far in a few minutes or summon our horses if we want to go faster. Sarung had won a beautiful Pale Summer horse from a gift box that was a golden honey color with a sharp looking bridle and saddle. I had chosen my horse from a similar box I had received. It was called a Red Skeleton horse and was black in color with the outline of bones painted on in red paint. It had no saddle or bridle so I rode bareback. When I rode the horse I felt extra intimidating as my cloak would flap behind me and my face would be obscured by the hood. Sarung's horse was nice, but I preferred mine since it was also a bit faster.

Thinking about my horse pulls my thoughts back to those riders I had spotted coming towards the city in the Lone Lands before we were whisked away into the instance. I hope they are other players or are friendly; else, we could be appearing in the midst of a battle. It had happened before, but it was always nerve wracking as you were disoriented as to what is going on. You never know how much damage you have already taken and can end up with only a few hits worth of morale before you are dead.

I feel the slight tug in my gut and steel myself to prepare for whatever may happen when we arrive. The world around me starts to blur away and I watch as Sarung's body starts to fade out next to me as well. My last view of him is of his smile before the world fades to black and I am falling once more.


	3. Lost in Grass

Lost in Grass

My freefall is suddenly arrested when I hit the ground. I slowly regain my vision and can once more sense the world around me. I stand up and dust of my clothes. Usually you rematerialize where you were standing before you teleported into the instance without any change in position. Finding myself flat out on the ground is a major surprise therefore, as is where I am.

Like in the Instance, I am surrounded by tall grass as far as I can see. The unending waves of plant matter are only broken by large hills of stone jutting up from the ground. Looking in my direct vicinity, I can see three other people from the instance, though I do not know any of them prior to then.

 _Where is Sarung? He must be around here somehwere. I wonder what happened. I'm nowhere near Ost Guruth…_

I'm about to ask the others what happened when I see a small blue asterisk next to my name, indicating that I have a message. Hoping it is from Sarung, I pull up the messaging menu. My shoulders sag a little when I see that the message is not from him but is from the game-makers.

 **WARNING TO ALL PLAYERS. THE GAME HAS NOW BEEN ACTIVATED. NORMAL APPLICATIONS OF LIFE HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED.**

 **ALL PLAYERS MUST FIGHT TO SAVE MIDDLE EARTH. THE ONLY WAY TO LEAVE IS TO MAKE IT TO MORDOR AND DEFEAT THE FINAL BOSS ON THE SLOPES OF MT. DOOM.**

 **IMs, PLAYER DIRECTORY, AND MAPS HAVE BEEN DISABLED.**

 **KINSHIPS ARE ALL DISSOLVED.**

 **PAIN IS SET AT A MINIMAL SETTING.**

 **CRAFTING ABILITIES ARE THE ONLY WAY TO OBTAIN WEAPONS AND ARMOR.**

 **ALL NPCS AND THREATS ARE MOBILE AND INTELLIGENT.**

 **IF YOU DIE, YOU ARE SENT BACK TO LEVEL ONE TO TRY AGAIN.**

 **WELCOME TO REAL LIFE IN MIDDLE EARTH**

The message disappears as soon as I have finished reading it.

"Things just got interesting." I say aloud.

The other three players are standing up now and are reading the messages as well.

"What a load of rubbish." One of them says, "All we have to do is log out."

She gets that spaced-out look every player does when they are accessing their menu. Her lute drops from her glowing Minstrel hands as her face goes white.

"The…the…the logout!...It's…gone!" she stutters and finally shouts.

Everyone voices their disbelief and we all check out menus to verify. Sure enough, the logout option is missing. There is no other way for a player to leave the game. Even dying will not log you out; just send you back to the starting area at level 1 to try to earn your way back up again. At least all of the beginner quests will be well learned by all of the players. I had died three times already at level 26 and I couldn't imagine having to start over after each death from scratch. Sarung had died only once as I was able to revive a dead fellowship member once every twenty minutes, which came in handy when we would become surrounded by too many creeps.

At the time, the highest level possible was 100 but the highest any player had gotten was level 47 and the game had been out for four months. The higher-level quests and battles were designed for players of top level to join in fellowships with other players to work as a team. Some of the largest battles required teams of 24 players to work together to succeed. A mix of healers, tanks, ranged, and dps classes were ideal for a large fellowship but getting enough players together at those levels were hard as everyone was on their own timing.

I am pulled out of my recall as the other players start to cry out in despair.

 _If they don't quiet down, they could attract all kinds of attention, and not of the good kind._

"Will you shut up and get a grip on yourselves." I say in a commanding tone.

They instantly quiet and I assume a leadership role.

"There is no time for us to lament our situation. I can see no way for us to get out of it any time soon so there is no reason to bemoan it. We need to find out where we are and move on from there. If we do not locate a town or other area of safety, we will have to camp out here on our own tonight. We have no clue as to what is around us or what dangers we may face. Like it or not this is our position right now. Everyone clear as to what we need to do?"

The other three nod their heads in silence. They seem willing enough to let me lead so I do. We begin hiking out towards what looks like a grove of trees in the distance.

The human male has shorter black choppy hair, as if a child took safety scissors to his head while he was sleeping. I catch a glimpse of light brown eyes verging almost to a caramel brown color. His stocky build makes him appear to be very muscular under his dark blue dyed heavy plated armor. He carries a tall Warden's shield of his right arm while both a javelin and long spear hang across his back like my staff does.

I look back behind me at the other man. He is an elf and seems to have chosen Mirkwood as his racial origin area. His long blonde hair comes a short ways past his shoulders and is partially pulled back with a small braid on each side. His lilting blue-grey eyes look stormy but also nice at the same time. A wide scar blazes across the left side of his face from the tip of his eyebrow to his prominent jawline. Many players think scars make them look fierce so they add them to their avatar. I think they just make the person look like they are careless and not the best of fighters if they had allowed a blade to come that close to finishing them off if this was real life. That draws my eyes down to the two long wicked looking swords strapped around his waist. I hope he is proficient in the use of those blades as we may need them sooner than I would like if trouble comes our way.

The third member of our little group is a Hobbit woman as she has no beard and barely comes up to my waist. Her hands are surrounded in a golden glow, marking her as a minstrel along with the large lute slung over her shoulder. She is an obvious red-head with flaming hair, deep green eyes, and a smattering of freckles across her face. The blazing hair is pulled back in a severe teacher-style bun that makes her seem out of place in this area with the rest of us having hair lowing in the wind. A small dagger dangles from her belt and I grimace at the thought of how little protection that would afford a normal person.

As we walk I decide to learn all I can about these players whom I may have to depend upon to save my life. I am also getting tired of the awkward silence that has settled in since no one will say anything as we go.

"Since we will probably be fighting together for a while, we might as well get acquainted." I say first. "I'm Taurieth, Level 26, Lore Master, Explorer crafter."

"Erothar. Level 24. Warden. Armorer craft." Says the human player.

 _He could be good in a fight. He seemed to be the quietest when he read the message._

"Needyfishies. Level 28. Minstrel. Yeoman crafter." Replies the Hobbit.

 _Peculiar name, but then again I've seen and heard of worse. It isn't a requirement for them to use Middle Earth names when you make a player avatar._

The third person, the elf, had yet to reply; and was only looking at the ground as we walked.

"What about you?" I ask as politely as I can.

"Baronlief. Level 22. Champion. Tinker craft." He says in a surprisingly deep yet very quiet voice.

 _Tinker is an interesting choice. His level is a bit low, but maybe he is just a newer player._

"There, now we all know each other; at least as much as we need to." I say.

Everyone else just walks in silence, only looking out at the horizon to see if they can spy something that can tell us where we are.

As the hours drag on, I would be happy enough to just find a road. Roads lead to towns or cities where we can figure out where we are at and find a place to stay where it is safe. Night falls and we are no closer to finding a place to stay. Erothar and I locate a depression in the land that might give us at least some shelter for the night. No one has a skill to build a fire, which is good since I would not want to risk an open flame in these grasslands nor in possibly dangerous territory. Erothar elects to take the first watch and I gladly let him. I lay my staff next to me and use my arm as a pillow against the grass. I am thankful for my cloak as it helps to keep out the night breeze that has yet to cease blowing since we arrived here, wherever here is.

 _I do not know where you are, Sarung, but I will try to find you. We will be together again. Soon._

Baronlief wakes me up a few hours before sunrise, giving me the last watch of the night. Nothing has happened so far, and I hope it stays that way. Baronlief is out cold as soon as his head touches the ground and he softly snores away. I scan the area around us and wait for the sun to rise. The wind died down at some point during the night and I can hear the sound of water flowing not too far off.

 _Once the sun comes up we should head to the source of the water surely we will be able to find someone if we follow the path of the water._

I watch the sunrise break over the distant hills and am filled with happiness as I watch the glowing orb of the sun appear. I gently try to wake the others, but Needyfishies seems content to stay and snore the day away. I pull out a piece of grass and start to tickle her ear with it. She bats it away and murmurs as she tries to roll over.

"I don't think that will do the trick on her Taur." Baronlief says.

"Then you try something, we can't wait all day for her to get up." I reply curtly.

With a smile, Baronlief draws his sword and grabs Erothar's shield. He stands next to Needyfishies and raises the sword over the shield. With a mighty shout the yells and slams the sword repeatedly on the shield. I quickly cover my ears, as does Erothar. Needyfishies bolts upright with a scream and stands there panting. Baronlief stops his clamoring and hands Erothar back his shield with a small smile.

"What was that for?" Needyfishies retorts.

"You were asleep. Taurieth said you needed to wake up for us to move on. I woke you up." Baronlief replies to her before turning to me. "Now what do you want us to do?"

I shake my head and laugh.

"Not quite what I was anticipating, but I guess it worked. I think I can hear a stream off to the north. We should head that way and see if we can find where it leads. If there is anyone in this area, they should have the same idea and if not the river should come near a road or city where we can get information."

"That is a sound plan." Erothar says, "Lead on Taur."

I take the lead and we head north. We have not gone far when I hear Needyfishies stomach growl loudly.

"I guess we do need to eat food now," she says with a groan. "and I haven't got any."

"Here." I say as I pull a stack of Dale Men's Crams out of my item bags. "I've got almost a whole stack of these. They taste terrible, but at least it should state the hunger for a while."

Needyfishies accepts a few of the hard biscuits as do Erothar and Baronlief. I take three to eat and place the rest back into my bags. The dry bread crumbles in my mouth and makes me wish for a drink. We munch on the food while we walk towards the sound of flowing water. The sun is almost directly overhead when we stumble upon our target. A small stream runs over a pebbled bed, glittering in the sunlight. All four of us stop and quickly kneel down by the water's edge to drink from the refreshing water. Once we all have stated out thirst we group up and decide where we want to go next: upstream or downstream.

"Upstream looks like it goes into the hills, and we cannot see anything between here and there." Baronlief says.

"Downstream looks like it could just run out into a pool though. Where will we be then?" Needyfishies chimes in.

"We can decide then just as easily as we can if it dead ends upstream." I reply. "No matter which way we choose, we will have a supply of water and food for a while which is all that matters for now."

"I say we go downstream." Erothar says. "It slopes downhill and I don't feel like hiking uphill when we can just as easily follow the water down a gentle slope."

"True. Uphill it is?" Baronlief asks.

"Works for me. What do you say Needy?" I ask.

"Looks like I am outnumbered." She replies.

"There is no being outnumbered here, just opinions." I say.

"Walking downhill is easier than walking up and keeping up with the three of you with your long legs is hard enough as it is." She decides.

"That settles it then. We will follow the water as it flows downstream and see what we can find." I say and we head out.

The ground next to the water is flat and easy to walk on. It is easy going and we make good time. We had not yet met with any creatures or monsters yet which troubles me. Usually there are dozens of enemies scattered through the landscape no matter where you are in the game. Now that our minimaps are gone I have no radar with which to know the position of any enemies. I should be able to see them just fine, but one can ever truly be sure.

As if to validate my fears on monsters, a wolf appears through the grass. There is no way to know what level it is at, or even if the leveling system still works for attacking things. Everyone draws their weapons and engages the beast. Erothar uses his shield to keep it back while Baronlief slashes at the wolf with his swords. Needyfishies is strumming stuns on her lute and I summon a single bolt of lightning with my staff. The bolt hits the animal on the side and it stumbles but keeps attacking. I strike the beast with the end of my staff while Erothar and Baronlief use their weapons as well.

A final stroke from Erothar's javelin finishes off the beast as we all rest and pant. Needyfishies strums a few chords on her lute and Erothar's morale refills since he had taken the brunt of the damage on his shield. I use my own healing ability to help Baronlief refill his morale as well. I was fine since I had stayed back for the most part and not received any damage. I check my XP status and see that that wolf gave me 144 points. That means it must have been just above my level, or it just gives that much. I wasn't able to select the animal since that ability seems to be gone, so there is no telling what level anything is anymore. You can only see the health bar and measure its progress as you hack away.

We continue making progress along the water, killing things as they appear. My XP soars as we go, increasing by at least 144 up to even 215 on some kills. Mostly we find wolves, but there have been a few wargs and orcs along the way. This must be a higher-level area for me to be doing that well. Everyone gets into a rhythm as we fight, working as a team to ensure success with minimal damages taken along the way. We all seem to be enjoying this distraction as we walk as it is better than our usual unbroken wandering.

Baronlief levels up and we all congratulate him on reaching level 23. I check my loot every once and a while, but only take the essences I find. Usually only humanoid creatures give armor and weapons while creatures give task materials and sometimes essences. Every once and a great while a player can find a rare item drop, but only very rarely. A few ore deposits cross our paths and Baronlief or Erothar mine the rock for ore pieces that they can use to make ingots for weapons or jewelry. The deposits are of various levels all in the same area, so it gives us no hint as to our location. Sometimes the deposits will even give shards or other crafting items along with pieces of ore. Everyone helps to share the items so that no one will fill their bags too quickly.

We continue on this way for the rest of the day and make camp next to the water. Night falls and I take the first watch as everyone else sleeps. I had leveled up twice today, so I sorted out my new skills granted for reaching level 28. I can now summon a lightning storm that will send bolts into all enemies within a certain distance of my target. It deals much more damage than my previous lightening attack did and I cannot wait to try it out. It is a warm night so I do not feel any chill as I stand and walk quietly around the camp. My time ends as sentry and I wake Erothar to take his turn. My head hits my bedroll and I am instantly asleep as I know I am safe with my companions to guard me.


	4. Fractured

Fractured

I am startled awake as a scream rends the air. I am immediately on my feet with my staff drawn as I assess my surroundings.

 _Who's on watch…morning…Needyfishies…not her scream though…man's scream…?_

I see the source of the screaming, well more like panicked yelling, and curse inwardly. Erothar is pinned to the ground by a massive warg while Needyfishies is hastily strumming her lute.

"Get it off me!" Erothar is yelling loudly.

Baronlief wakes as I do and we throw ourselves into the fray. Four more wargs join the first and begin to attack us. I summon Espresso quickly and he joins into the fight as well, slashing and biting as much as possible. I attack the warg on Erothar and use my new skill. Lightning arcs down, lighting up the area as it cracks against the animals' sides. I see their health bars go down, but only barely. My attack pretty much just made me a target as all five now begin to attack me.

I unleash all I have against the wargs. Fire, lightning, cracked earth, taunts, and stuns fly from my staff as quickly as I can use them. I watch as my morale bar quickly dips down. It fills back to full as Needyfishies heals me with a few chords. I back off and manage to start healing the others as needed as well. Baronlief is dealing sword thrusts left and right almost to the point that he looks like a whirlwind of blades. Erothar is keeping two beasts back with his shield as he switches to a close-ranged stance to allow him better hand-to-hand combat. I try to help everyone and use my lightning skill once more. Two wargs fall dead, but three more join in. I jump in next to Erothar and start to use my staff as a bludgeon. I strike wargs left and right and sometimes a bolt will strike them as well. More fire rains down and I pull lightning as often as I can. I quickly drink an athelas potion to heal myself and everyone else does the same before getting back into the fight. Three more wargs fall and we are down to three left.

"We can do this!" I yell as I engage the center warg with a taunt and ignite its fur on fire. I feel the durability of my staff deplete further as the warg slashes it with its claws. More lightning hits the beasts while Erothar and Baronlief join me on either side as they deal as much damage as they can. All but one of the wargs fall and the last one faces us off. I stun it quickly which allows everyone to take a breather to drink another potion. The stun fades and the beast lunges towards me. I raise my staff to deflect and bring it down at the same time. A stinging vibration flows down the wood as I make contact with the head of the warg. I let go of the weapon just as it shatters into a thousand little splinters, its durability hitting zero. Baronlief jumps in front of me and finishes off the beast with a few sword thrusts and slices. I look down at my empty hands in disbelief. I had never compromised a weapon's durability before, and definitely not broken one. I watch as it fades from my inventory and weapon slot as if it had never existed.

"It's…it's…gone!" I stammer out, not believing that my hands are empty.

"I guess weapons disappear now once they reach zero durability." Baronlief says.

"What's the big deal? Don't you have a spare staff in one of your bags Taurieth?" Needyfishies says as she examines her lute.

I check my bags but there is no staff there. All I have is a sword I had looted before the instance to give to Sarung since it was of possible use to him.

"All I have is a one-handed sword, which I can't use." I say quietly.

"Then there is nothing we can do but get you to a town where you can get a new staff." Erothar says.

"I will be of no help until then." I say as we gather up our things. "All of my skills require me to have a staff."

"That sucks." Baronlief replies.

"Same happens when you lose a sword or your shield."

"Yes, but I try to have a back-up just in case."

I have no reply to that.

We hastily leave the area so we will not be attacked by the same beasts a second time once they respawn. The sun breaks over the horizon giving us our second day in the game. I can't help but think about Sarung as we walk.

 _Where is he? Near, far, halfway across Middle Earth? Is he facing the same challenges we are? Does he have players with him that he can trust? Has he died and been kicked back to level one in a forced restart? How will I find him again with no IMs or tracker? I could try to send him a message via a letter. He should be able to get that quickly. I'll have to locate a mailbox, possibly in the first town we come to._

True to my thoughts, we come upon a road with a signpost pointing to a city a few miles away. Icons on the sign say there is a stable, mailbox,, and crafting stations there. The mailbox is what draws my attention, as do the stables. A horse will make things much easier than walking or running everywhere. We follow the road and meet up with a few other players as we come nearer the town. Guards at the gate let us through without a second glance and we behold the town.

The gathering of buildings is not very large, but it has the essentials we need except for the vault. I immediately go to the mailbox and try to send a letter to Sarung:

Sarung,

I'm safe at the moment. After the Instance I was teleported to some grasslands area. I'm currently in a town called Anduin, no clue where that is in relation to a major city or landmark. I'm with three other players and I will do my best to find you.

Waiting to hear from you,

Taurieth

I go to send the letter, but there is a new box that must be filled in…destination. Someone taps me on the shoulder.

"All letters now go to a set destination instead of to wherever the player is located. You must check that mailbox or have a permanent address where mail can be delivered." A short dwarf barks out to me as he sends his own letter. "If you need to send the letter to a different location after it arrived, you can send a letter to the postmaster at the destination to forward the letter to a different location. It works, but is one hell of a headache."

"I can imagine." I reply, perplexed.

 _Where should I send it? We were near Ost Guruth before the instance, but he could be anywhere now. I'll send it to Bree. He's bound to go there at some point if he is searching for me._

I set the destination as The Auction Hall in Bree and send the letter after paying the small sending fee. The fee makes me check my purse to see how much money I currently have, and I am happy to see that I have amassed 25 gold 632 silver 394 copper. That can go for a ways unless I start to spend it on trivial things. Money is one commodity that can be easy to come by if you know where to look for it. Most quests grant a little money for completion but the best way is to sell task items to brokers or to sell materials to players who need them.

I leave the mailbox and find Erothar, Baronlief and Needyfishies talking together near the stables.

"We should take rides to the next town." Needyfishies says.

"There is everything we need right here though." Baronlief replies.

"We could stay here for a bit and then decide what we want to do." Erothar adds, "Plus that gives Taurieth the time she would need."

"Time I would need for what?" I say as I join them.

"We are deciding what we want to do next." Erothar tells me. "Either we stay here and recuperate, which gives you time to see about a new staff, or we take horses to the next area possibly."

"Where would the next area be?" I ask eager to know my location.

"We were north and east of the Mines of Moria in the Gladden Fields." Baronlief says. "So we can head towards Lothlorien or Mirkwood. Both of those places have a vault, and are the nearest to us.

I whistle at that. We are in Rohovanion, which is several days hard riding across the mountains to get to Rivendell, which was about three days away from where I was with Sarung in the Lone Lands. Even if Sarung did know where I was, it would take him almost two weeks to get here, hopefully the mail traveled faster than a player on a horse.

"What is in the next town?" I ask.

"Who cares?" Needyfishies replies. "It's a different town and a different area."

"I care." I reply sharply. "I am looking for a really good friend of mine and I want to give him at least a chance of finding me."

"What…you lose your boyfriend?" She says with a teasing voice.

"As a matter of fact he is my boyfriend in real life and he just started playing LOTRO with me." I retort.

Needyfishies raises her hands up in mock surrender.

"Well excuse me for asking. We can't all have people out there to worry about and he doesn't matter anymore. You have no chance of finding him until the game is over. I say just forget about him and move on with the game."

My hand moves faster than thought as I strike Needyfishies across the face.

"HE MATTERS TO ME!" I yell. "I WILL NOT LEAVE HIM!"

She hits the ground hard and I tower over her prostrate form.

Erothar places a hand on my shoulder before I can strike again, and I jerk at his touch. Everyone in the square is looking at me, whispering about my outbreak. I shrug off his hand and walk towards the crafting area.

"If you want to go on to the next town then go. Do whatever you like but I am staying here." I say over my shoulder.

I don't look back to see what the three of them decide to do. I stand and stare at the scholar's study and forge but leave before making anything. Erothar catches up to me a while later as I stare out towards the open area.

"I'm sorry about earlier. I lost my head." I say without looking at him.

"Apology accepted, though you don't have to apologize to me."

"Where is Needyfishies?"

"She took a ride to the next town."

"And Baronlief?"

"He's staying here. He's also checking the rates for a place to stay here in town. You are welcome to join us if you wish."

I assess my options.

"If there is room for me I wouldn't reject your offer, if the rate is good. Else I will just camp outside the town. It should be fairly safe there."

Erothar nods but remains standing next to me.

"You will find him again, Taurieth. Moreover, if there is anything I can do to help you search I will. Just tell me what you need."

"Why would you be willing to help me? I haven't done anything that would merit you helping me." I say as I turn and look at him in disbelief.

"If this game is going to go how I think it will, people will need to work together to be able to beat the quests to finish the game. You seem to be a strong player and I think we could possibly work well together. That is, if you want my help."

"I'm not as strong a player as you would think, but, yes, I do think we could work well together. I look forwards to fighting with you, at least until we find Sarung. Even then I think you two could possibly get along alright and we could all work as a team."

Erothar gives me a large smile that seems to light up his being.

"Good. Let's see if Baronlief has managed to secure us lodgings for the night."

We find Baronlief standing in the main square. The inn would cost us much more than it is worth, but he found a place willing to let us sleep in the stables for the night free of charge. We make beds out of the straw strewn on the floor, but it is better than sleeping out in the open as we are safe from creatures and attack. Sleep finds me quickly and I surrender to its welcome embrace.


	5. Searching for a Shard

The next morning both men are determined to help me find someone to craft me a new staff. We ask around, and one of the NPCs at the forges tells us that I need to find a player with the ability to do woodworking, or a merchant willing to sell one to someone of my level. We thank the smith and decide to head to another town to see if we can find more players who would be willing to give us their help.

The ride costs us 30 silver coins each, but that is not a major price to pay for a horse. It can become quite expensive to travel a long distance via horseback which is why most players purchase mounts of their own that will appear when called upon. The only issue is that skill to have a horse is gone till we reach Rohan. I will have to see about purchasing permanent rides for us so we do not have to return the horses after each ride once we make it that far. Another option would be to locate a hunter class player who has earned the teleports to the areas we wish, but they charge extravagant prices for their services based on the cooldown of their port to where you want to go. It is much faster, but not worth it for the short distances we tend to travel.

The horses take us to another town of about the same size that doesn't have any current players in it. We continue on, heading south which seems to be in the direction of Rohan lands. At the fourth town, we locate a group of players sitting near a fountain next to the stables. They look weary from fighting but are quick to offer us a place among their ranks.

"We can always use more help." A dwarf minstrel says.

"Thanks, but we are actually looking for someone who could make me a new staff. I'm a Lore Master and my staff broke in combat." I reply.

"You need a woodworker craftsman." Says a female hobbit burglar.

"Do you know of one?" Baronlief asks politely.

"Yeah, Juardin is one." She says as she indicates a dwarf standing off to the side with a few elven hunters.

We approach the dwarf and I almost laugh aloud at the sight of him. His armor is of a vibrant lime green and he sports what looks like a jester's hat instead of a helm. I hope some of it is cosmetic wear as that would make for useless armor in a fight. That and he would stick out like a sore thumb on a battlefield.

"Are you Juardin?" Erothar asks the dwarf.

"Depends on who's asking." The dwarf replies in a deep gravelly voice. "And on what ya want."

I step forwards and offer my hand to him.

"I am Taurieth." I say courteously, "And I am in need of someone to make me a new staff."

"And who told you I could make ya one?" he says and spits on the ground next to my feet.

"The burglar hobbit over by the fountain." I say, pointing to the player who had directed us to Juardin.

"Ah, Rosalita. She's a good fighter, killer with a dagger."

"So can you make me a staff?"

"That depends."

"On?" Erothar asks, starting to get impatient with the dwarf.

"On if I can get the correct materials together to craft it." Juardin gruffly replies.

"What will you need?" I ask quickly.

"That depends on what level you want the staff to be. For your level now I would need thin ash boards, a sapphire shard, and some hardy twine. The twine I have, but the other two would have to be gathered from other areas. You would also out level that staff quickly." He replies.

"So what would you need no make a staff that she could use for a long while yet?" Baronlief asks.

"For that kind of staff I need strong ilex boards, and emerald shard, and a journal of expert woodworking." Juardin retorts back.

"Those things are very hard to find." Erothar replies.

"Well I can't fix that. I will say this. I'm going to go to Rivendale to stay until this blasted game is over. I see no reason to traipse around killing things and being possibly sent back to level one if I don't have to. If you do gather the things I need, send them to the guesthouse there and I will make the staff for you. How does that work for you?" Juardin asks me.

"That would be great." I say happily. "Thank you so much for your kind offer to help me. I will do my utmost best to send you the materials you need to craft the staff for me."

Juardin just nods at this and walks away towards the stables. I look at Erothar and Baronlief, so glad for their help.

"Well." I say satisfied, "We now have a few items to find."

"That we do." Erothar replies, contemplating out current situation.

"Where should we start?" Baronlief asks. "Most of those things we need are way above our levels."

"How about an auction hall." I reply confidently. "Someone is bound to have placed the stuff we need there for sale. All we have to do is go buy it."

"Yes, but are you sure we will have enough money?" Baronlief replies.

"I have a good amount, besides, how much could someone possibly want for those kinds of things." I call out over my shoulder as I walk to the stables.

I inquire about where the closest auction hall is and am astounded by the stableman's response that it was several days hard riding away at Caras Galadhon in Lothlorien,, it would take a long time to get there even with horses.

"Well, do we want to try it, or do we want to do some quests and leveling around the area while we try and work our way there?" Erothar asks me.

"I can't level since I have no weapon genius." I snap at him.

"Then we can either ride horses there or we can do some crafting." He replies with a grin.

"I don't have stuff to do the crafting." I say after checking my bags for materials.

"I know you must have some in your personal vault that you can use. The crafting will help you to level up as will it increase your proficiency. We could all do with some leveling in that area I think." Baronlief adds.

"Plus we can help each other with some of the materials." Erothar inputs. "Especially if we run back towards that original town and kill things along the way. Who knows, we may find the stuff we need." Erothar adds.

"Again, I can't fight." I retort.

"We never said you had to." Erothar responds.

"You can be item storage." Baronlief says with a slap on my shoulder. "That way we aren't filled up so quickly with stuff."

I growl under my breath as the frustration mounts but I accept their proposal to fight our way back. It is nearing evening, so we decide to camp outside the city for the night before heading out in the morning.

The next morning we form up a fellowship with Baronlief as the leader. The road leading out of town is the quickest route and we set off at a moderate run. Erothar takes point with Baronlief and I running behind him to his left and right. Whenever something pops up and attacks, I retreat a short distance and let the two men fight against whatever it is that appears. I continually check my pending loot so I will not lose any of the materials dropped. We stop after every dozen or so kills to rest and allow the men to check their loot and take anything of value as well. They give me all of the crafting items they take and I stack them with the loot I already have.

"How are we doing?" Erothar asks after he finishes handing over some tailor materials.

"We have almost a full stack of sturdy hides, several tailor fibers, some scholar dye materials, a few reputation items, and one ruby shard." I reply as I check my bags.

"Pity that we don't need a ruby shard for the staff instead of an emerald shard." Baronlief says.

"Aye." I agree as we press on.

It seems the only creeps in the area are animals, my stacks of hides quickly max out and create second or third stacks. Someone will be glad to have those hides for crafting armor once we are able to reach a city with crafting benches. I wish we were able to find more humanoid creeps to fight as more reputation items would be useful. The trade rate for those can be expensive and they are an easy way to make some quick cash if needed. If I had more space I'd save the task items we earn as those can give up to 300 silver for a stack, but only 50 will make a stack and that takes up twice to ten times the room of other items. I spread out some of the full stacks of materials to the boys inventory so as to keep mine open as much as possible.

We make it back to Anduin and continue through the trees until we arrive in Emyn Lum and visit the vault keeper. After withdrawing all of my crafting supplies, my bags are bursting with items. We congregate in the crafting area and trade out materials based on what each of us can use. Both of them had mined all of the ore deposits we came across on our journey and had amassed a large amount of ore pieces to smelt into ingots. Erothar gets all of the fibers and other tailor items while the jewels go to Baronlief to make into jewelry. I take all of the wood and hides to process into usable boards and leather for use in recipes for armor and weapons the boys can use.

I make several stacks of brushed leather and thin boards before handing the basic materials off to the men to craft with. I clear master level before I run out of materials. Erothar gives Baronlief all of the precious metal ingots he has forged. Baronlief creates jewelry for each of us to boost our morale and power as well as give us boosts to our other abilities. I locate a weaponsmith player who had set up shop in the city and trade out our heavy metal ingots for crafted weapons and a set of heavy armor for Baronlief. They had killed enough animals to find just enough hides to create light armor for me to wear and medium armor for Erothar as well. Everyone exchanges items around so we have the gear created special for each of us.

After we have exhausted our available materials, we place the remains of the crafting materials into our vaults once more. I was able to go up three levels with an XP boost I had received before Starting Day, as everyone was calling the day the game went crazy, making me level 31. Baronlief had received several levels of XP with the slaying, and manages four more levels to reach level 28. Erothar finishes just behind me at level 30 once he completes his rounds of crafting.

"I think we did fairly well with the crafting." Baronlief says as he admires his new swords that I had been able to acquire.

"That we did." Erothar says as he clasps his new bracelets around his wrists before hiding their presence in his character panel.

I change into my new armor for level 30 and change out all of my jewelry for the stuff Baronlief created for me. I hide it all with my cosmetic clothing so I maintain my previous appearance. We locate a provisioner and sell all of our old gear for money.

"Now that we have reached higher levels, we should be able to make it to the auction hall easily enough." I say. "We also have the money to pay for it easily from all of that gear we sold out."

Erothar and Baronlief agree with me and we decide to take horses from the stables to the next town. I stop by the mailbox and request that the postmaster forward any mail addressed to me to the mailbox in Caras Galadhon. I meet up with the two men and we purchase rides to our next destination.

We follow the stable masters' direction as to what town we should go to next on the route to the town with the auction hall. They are easy enough to follow and we make good time to the small outpost wher we can change out horses for the next leg of our journey. It takes us several days and almost a dozen rides before we are finally able to reach Caras Galadhon. We are met by an elven guard which allows us entrance based on our reputation levels with their faction, a result of our slaying along the way as we could take leave from the trail to do so. They direct us towards the auction hall on our request and we are allowed to pass under the boughs of the mallon trees in full bloom even though the summer was beginning to come to a close. Baronlief leads the way inside and we gather around the first auctioneer we can find.

"What is it you are searching for?" she asks, her voice having a lilt to it as does everyone else around us.

"I would like to know if there are any sapphire shards up for auction." I reply, crossing my fingers behind my back.

"Sapphire shard," she responds, "Those are rare and difficult to come by. Yet, there is one for sale in this auction hall."

"How much?" Baronlief asks as hope rises in my chest.

"40 gold." The auctioneer replies.

I gasp at the price. I had been playing for almost a full year now in total and had only amassed 26 gold plus some spare silver and copper in that amount of time. It would take me at least several weeks if not months to have enough money to buy the shard I need and by that time I would possibly be above the level of the staff the shard would make me. I quickly turn around and leave the hall, hearing Erothar calling out my name behind me. Once I'm out of the doors I run through the streets until I am near the edge of the city. I slow and turn down a side street to continue in the safety of the city walls. I keep going until I can't run any longer and am forced to slow to a brisk walk as I try to work through what I am going to do now.


	6. Choose Your Weapon

I look up from my position under a large tree and see Baronlief walking my way. I had grown tired of walking about as I attempted to work out my frustrations. The tree was a convenient place to sit and think over what my next steps would be. I press my forehead against my drawn knees as Baronlief sits down next to me.

"So what are your plans now?" he asks.

"Well, there is no way I will be able to afford to buy the shard. Not unless I sell everything I own plus more." I reply as I lift my head to face him.

"Guess we will just have to keep our eyes open for one as we go. One is bound to show up once we get to the higher level areas."

"That will take several weeks and I will be of no help along the way. It is not fair for me to make you and Erothar drag me around until we happen upon one."

Baronlief doesn't reply. I can see his eyes are staring off into the distance as he thinks. A smile flits across his face.

"What?" I ask, slightly annoyed by his happy smile.

"Do you still have that sword you mentioned you were saving for Sarung?" he asks as he stands up.

"Yes…why?"

He reaches out a hand to me and pulls me up.

"Remove it from your inventory and follow me."

I give him a puzzled look but do as he asks. The sword in not too heavy to carry in one hand so I manage to keep up easily as Baronlief leads the way through town. We walk down several winding streets before we locate Erothar sitting on a stone wall eating a sandwich.

"Ero, I think I may have a solution to Taur's problem." Baronlief calls to him.

Erothar quickly shoves the rest of the sandwich into his mouth before he jumps down besides us.

"And what would that be?" he asks as he eyes the sword in my hand.

"We are going to teach her how to wield a sword." Baronlief says with a smile.

I am expecting Erothar to start laughing, and am surprised when he only runs a hand over his growing beard.

"That could work." He says, "She would have no skills to use, but she may just be able to use a weapon if it isn't equipped."

"There's no harm in trying it out. We will see if she can do damage first, before we try to train her."

"I sincerely doubt that it will work." I say as I turn the sword over in my hand.

"All we can do is try it and see. If we fail then we will have to think of something else." Erothar says.

"And if it does work we will be able to search for the chard you need with your help." Baronlief says with a smile.

"I guess we can try it and see if it will work." I say, a smile forming on my own face.

We head out of town and find an open grassy area where other players should not disturb us. Baronlief shows me the proper stance for wielding a one-handed sword when I am not using a shield. It takes me a few tries before I am able to how the sword perfectly for a few minutes strait.

"That's good." Baronlief says, "Now I want you to make a stab at my leg."

"What!?" both Erothar and I say at the same time.

"We need to know if you can deal damage with a weapon that is not equipped. This is the best and quickest way to do it."

"We could go find some creature for her to attack." Erothar responds. "It doesn't have to be you."

"Relax. She can't do that much damage. I'll heal quickly and we will know what we need to know."

Erothar shakes his head and steps back. I look at Baronlief who nods and turns sideways to me so his left leg is outstretched. I take a firm grip on the sword and swing it at his leg. The blade scores a groove in Baronlief's thigh and red pixels fly out. I see his morale bar dip a few dozen points before his healing takes effect and it returns to full.

"Well, I guess you can do damage with a non-equipped weapon." Erothar says with a smile.

"Aye." Baronlief agrees. "Now you have to learn how to use a sword because nothing will sit there and allow itself to be stabbed and slashed."

"That also means we should see if she must use weapons at her level or if they can be of a higher level as well." Erothar adds in.

"Great idea." I say, thrilled that there is a possibility that I could still fight when I don't have access to a staff.

"Let's spend the rest of today looking at swords and possible armor for you. Light armor won't work very well in close combat with a sword. If you want to we can also try ranged weapons and shield types." Erothar finishes.

We go back into town and find the crafting area after pulling the items we need from the vault keeper. We set about making a variety of items for me to try out. I forge several different types of swords at my level as well as a few above my level in case I can use them as well. We check them out discretely and find that I can only deal damage with weapons at or below my level. They also do less damage than if I had the skill to use them by more than half.

"You will just have to strike harder and faster than skills would allow." Baronlief replies.

I decide that I prefer the two handed swords as I do not like having a shield in my way. The javelins and spears prove too unwieldy for my less than muscular frame so I discard them. I prove to be fairly competent with a bow and decide to train with one as well as my sword so I can do ranged damage if needed. Erothar makes some Medium armor at my level but I can't seem to get it to go on.

"Try equipping it as cosmetic gear." Baronlief says.

I successfully equip it as cosmetic and Erothar checks its usefulness. His spear glances off the armor as does Baronlief's sword. The durability of the armor decreases more than it normally would just like the weapons, but I can always repair it if necessary. I try a few pieces of heavy armor I made up, but they are too heavy for me to be able to move quick enough if I was in battle. Maybe at some point I will be strong enough to wear it, but not now. I slide the bow and quiver onto my back and strap a sword belt around my waist so that the sword hangs on my left side. I do a double check of all of the straps and buckles on the armor before I turn to the guys.

"How do I look?"

"Deadly." Erothar says with a smile.

I roll my eyes as I appraise my appearance in the nearby fountain. The helm obscures most of my face, but my dirty blonde hair hangs over my shoulder.

"Do you think my hair will get in the way of my fighting?" I ask, fingering it.

"It could. We will have to wait and see." Baronlief replies.

We decide to call it quits for the day and take up rooms in an inn. It feels weird to sleep in the armor, but I manage to get a decent amount of rest before the sun appears the next morning. I am awake before the others and I do not feel like waiting for them to get moving. I check to make sure I have all of my gear before leaving the inn. I go back to the same area as yesterday and decide to practice my marksmanship with my bow until the lazy boys get up.

I find a hummock of grass and stand several paces away. I carefully begin to shoot arrows at it. Most of them strike around the tuft of grass for one to two paces but a few of them actually strike the stems directly. I empty my quiver of arrows and walk over to retrieve them so I can start again. I only find eight arrows in the ground.

 _I know I shot thirty arrows over here. Where are the rest?_

My question is answered when I go to place my retrieved arrows in my quiver. The rest of my arrows are there as they have reappeared inside.

 _They must have a respawn delay. I will have to keep track of how many arrows I shoot from now on. At least I will not have to retrieve spent arrows during a fight._

I continue shooting at the grass for another hour until my arms tire. I'm beginning to wonder where the men have gotten to as they should be up by now as it is almost noon. I put my bow back in the holder in my quiver and set out to go search for them.

I check at the inn first, but the bartender informs me that both men had left around an hour ago. I thank him for the information and exit the inn. I check the crafting area, the merchant building, and even at the auction hall but they are nowhere to be found. I'm about to think they left town without me as I go to check one final place, the stables. The streets twist and turn as I follow the side route on a short cut. The smells of horse, dung, and sweat assault my nose as I round the final corner and arrive at the stables. A sound I am not expecting to hear joins the normal noises of the animals around me…fighting!

I draw my sword and rush towards the gathering of people I see on the other side of the stable area. A ring of players has formed around two men who are furiously engaged in combat. I can't make out who the players are so I force my way through the people until I am standing next to the fighters and can tell who they are under their covering of dirt and sweat.

"What the hell are you two doing!?" I shout to be heard above the clash of weapons on a shield.

Baronlief freezes mid-swing while Erothar spins around and almost drops his shield at the sound of my voice. The other players quickly disperse as they realize the entertainment is now over.

"There is no reason for the two of you to be fighting like this. Put your weapons away and talk like civil people." I continue with arms folded across my chest.

"Taureith! You're ok!" Erothar exclaims as he drops his spear.

He rushes over and envelops me in a hug.

"Told you it wasn't her." Baronlief says as he sheaths his sword. "Taur would never be that idiotic."

"What is it that I am supposed to have done?" I ask as I manage to get Erothar to let go of me.

"We went looking for you after we woke up and you were not at the inn. We asked around and found out that a player had been seen going out towards the fields armed like you are now." Baronlief explains. "We headed towards the fields to see if it was you. We had barely made it past the buildings when a rider came flying towards us. We were able to stop him and ask what the problem was.

"He told us he had just watched a player be killed by a group of other players out in the fields. He described the player as best he could and again it seemed like he was describing you. Erothar feared that it was you and he wanted to immediately ride out and hunt them down for "killing" you. I told him we should wait and see if it was you as you would send us a message here if you had died and been sent back to Erid Luin. The argument escalated and weapons were pulled. It hadn't been going long when you showed up."

"That doesn't explain why you thought I wouldn't be 'that idiotic'." I reply.

"Taking on an entire group of rogue players with your sword alone? Not even a highly skilled player would do that, let alone you in your current status. You are smarter than that." He says with a grin.

I smile.

"Yeah. I'm not that stupid."

During this entire exchange Erothar had been kneeling by my feet with his head hanging down. I reach down and tousle his black hair gently.

"I only went to go practice shooting since the two of you were being lazy and still sleeping past dawn." I say. "There was no reason to be worried. I can take care of myself and am smart enough to not get myself killed."

Erothar says nothing and stands up. He will not look me in the eye and only nods when I ask if he is ok. We go back to the inn and eat a meal before going out to the practice field as I call it. Baronlief puts me through the basics of how to use a sword in combat even though my arms are tired from shooting. I quickly memorize the stances, attacks, and blocks and Baronlief gives his approval of my progress.

Over the next few days I practice sparring with either him or Erothar so I can learn how to adapt to different types of enemies. I seem to be a natural swordswoman and I am able to disarm Baronlief often. I keep getting hung up on my hair and Baronlief takes advantage of that fact at times. After I pick myself up from the dirt for the fifth time in a row after he had grabbed my hair and thrown me to the ground.

"Ok. I'm done." I say as I stand back up.

"Finally had enough?" Baronlief says as he sheaths his own sword.

"I'm tired of you pulling my hair in a fight." I say as we leave the area.

"So…what?" Erothar asks.

"I'm gonna cut it off." I say.

"But it looks so good on you." Erothar says.

"Looks don't matter here." I say as I find one of the other players in town.

I tell her what I want, and the girl draws her dagger. She pulls out strips of my hair and slices through it so that it is all just past my jawline. Hair doesn't grow here, so it won't change now that I have cut it. I thank the girl and give her a handful of silver coins to pay for her help. It feels weird not having my almost waist long hair and I keep feeling the hair tickle the back of my neck.

Erothar looks me up and down as I come over to where he is waiting with Baronlief.

"What do you think?" I ask them.

"Your hair definitely will not get in the way of the sword now." Baronlief says.

"Definitely." I reply.

Erothar only keeps looking at me before walking away. I think I upset him, but I don't care to go and ask him how or why.

Days pass as I practice using my sword every day. I get Baronlief to show me some of his skills as well as a few tricks I can use in a tight spot. I manage to disarm him once or twice, but I am usually the one laying on the ground covered in dust at the end of each session. Erothar tends to avoid the open field when I am sparring with Baronlief, as I no longer see him watching the endless matches I am put through. Once or twice he comes when Baronlief has something he must do and doesn't want me to go without practice. Erothar doesn't speak to me outside of correcting my form or grip on the hilt.

I corner Baronlief one afternoon between matches to demand he tell me what is going on with Erothar.

"Just give him some time. He is just adjusting to the new you after having fought with you day and night for the past two months. He will come around eventually once he feels comfortable with you sword prowess." Baronlief explains.

I still don't understand why it would take him longer than Baronlief to adjust to my no longer using a staff to fight. I shrug and resume my ready stance as Baronlief's sword arcs towards my body once more and the match begins anew.

Once Baronlief believes I am competent with the sword we start out on foot around the area. The fighting is somewhat trying as I engage the different types of creatures and enemies we fight. I enjoy getting back into the action even though I collapse onto my bedroll each night sore and tired.

We collect quests and errands from the local NPCs and work our way through the tasks given to us. I manage to reach level 40 while both of the men manage level 42. We have traversed all over Rhovanion and we amass much wealth by selling craft materials we do not need to other players. We are constantly pausing to craft new gear as we hit the new levels. News comes in of players making it to the slopes of Mt. Doom, but every group that tries to fight the final boss fails and are all sent back to level one. I'm beginning to think that there is no way to beat the game and that we will be stuck in this infernal game forever.

 _The only way this game will end is if you assemble the perfect team of fighters. Players who know each other intimately and have no need to communicate during battle. They would have to be able to act and react in perfect unison and have complete trust in each other. That is the only way to do it, and it will never happen as there is no way a group that large can be that knowledgeable about how everyone fights._


	7. Rogue Players

I slowly stand up with my hands raised in surrender to the pissed elven face leering down at me. The woman has middling length straight light brown hair with a delicate coronet holding back the flowing tresses. Her furious green eyes seem to burn into my being with a mix of hate and disgust. Her armor is of the type that would have been hand crafted for a hunter, light yet with very few chinks where a blade or arrow could penetrate in.

"I should kill you where you stand for trespassing on Rohan land," she spits out, "I usually do. However, my commanding officer wishes to speak to the brave players who faced down the band of rogues."

Her voice drips with Sarcasm at the 'brave players' and I have a feeling she does not get along with her 'commanding officer' at all. She uses her bow to herd Erothar and I towards a player seated on a beautiful pure white horse. The player dismounts and removes their helm to survey the two of us. The woman's hair is pitch black and cropped short. Vivid blue eyes are a stark contrast to her hair, but they seem to be more curious than angry.

"I am Alyssa. Champion. I am the Commander of this group of riders. I was told that the two of you were the players who bravely faced down the rogue players as they pursued you."

"There were three of us." Erothar says. "But Baronlief died when the players fled and one threw a spear at him."

"I am sorry that we weren't able to come in time to save him." Alyssa replied solemly. "It is a sad day when a player is sent back. I am grateful to you though as those players have plagued our borders for the past few weeks. For that reason I will take you to meet King Théoden instead of banishing you from our lands."

"And we thank you for that kindness, Commander Alyssa." I say politely with a small bow.

"Shoyrue, find mounts for these two. Then assemble everyone for the ride back to Edoras." Alyssa says.

The elf with the bow, Shoyrue I guess, gives a small salute before prodding me none too gently in the back with the tip of said bow. Erothar and I follow her towards a group of horses tied to other riders mounts. She grabs two of them and thrusts the reigns into our hands. We mount up and are quickly surrounded by riders in a tight formation.

 _Even if we wanted to try to escape on horse there is no open path to do so. And even if we did manage to make a break for it, these riders would probably catch us before we could get more than a hundred yards away._

All of the players follow Alyssa and Shoyrue pulls the leads on our horses to make them follow as well. The column winds its way around the spurs of rock dotting the landscape. Everyone talks quietly around us, but every time I try to ask one of the riders something they give us a stern look which discourages further conversation. The silence drags on with only the sound of the horses as they wade through the tall grass to be heard besides the natural sound of wildlife.

One of the riders at the front of the column gives a shout and the riders hasten their pace. I look over at Erothar and he just shrugs as our mounts are pulled forwards faster by the surging stream of animals around us. We crest a small hill and see what has excited everyone. On the next rise, a small city sprawls across the slopes of a large plateau. The crest of which is dominated by a large hall that glints in the afternoon sunlight. Edoras. The City of the Golden Hall. Home to Théoden, Kind of Rohan. I can remember reading about this place in the books and seeing the version that the set builders had created for the movie trilogy, but I had never seen it for myself in-game until this moment.

The buildings had the same layout as the movie had presented them, but everything seemed to be more vibrant and alive in person. Several NPCs were moving about preforming their daily tasks essential to their lives. I also spotted several who were in uniforms signaling that they were part of the Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan. Alyssa signals for the column to halt below the steps leading up to the Golden Hall. She signals to the banner carrier who waves the Rohan banner in a curious pattern. Most of the riders peel away from the column and scatter down various streets into the rest of the city.

 _That must have been her way of dismissing everyone. Handy as it keeps her from having to shout out her orders. I wonder what we are supposed to do. See Théoden perhaps. Hopefully be granted clemency as we were being chased by rogues. It was either cross the border or be killed so we didn't have much choice._

My mental preparation is cut short as Alyssa beckons for Erothar and I to dismount and come with her. Shoyrue takes up a position behind us as if we would still chance making a run for it.

 _How stupid does she think we are? We are deep in the Rohan lands and are in the center of Edoras! At least half of their army is scattered around us throughout the city. We wouldn't make it to the gates before we were caught. So do you really think we are going to run away?_

Alyssa leads us up the steps towards the two intricately carved oaken doors that guard the entrance to the Hall. Four guards stand at their posts beside the doors and they cross their spears in front of the doors as Alyssa steps up to them.

"State name, rank, and intent." One of the guards calls out.

" Alyssa, Commander of Rohan. I am here to give report to King Théoden and to present some prisoners to him." Alyssa replies firmly.

The guard nods and singly enters the Hall while we must wait outside. The wind is starting to pick up and I can feel the temperature dropping as we stand there exposed at the top of the hill. After what seems like forever, the guard returns and waves Alyssa in through the door. Shoyrue prods my back as if I am not walking fast enough for her. I hasten my pace to be directly behind Alyssa as we pass through those heavy doors. I am struck breathless as I behold the interior of the fabled Hall. Intricate carvings like those upon the doors course their way around almost every facet of the building. Immense columns support the ceiling, creating a central walkway with two smaller alcoves upon either side. A great hearth contains a smoldering fire, giving enough heat to make the room pleasantly warm. Directly at the head of the room sits a great chair that sports the finest carvings of them all. Horses' heads arch over the back to touch with foreheads butted together. Their manes flow down the chair to the armrests. The rest are no doubt beautiful as well, but I can only see half of them as they are obscured by the figure of the man sitting upon the throne. Théoden, King of Rohan. A golden helm glints through blonde hair, which frames a friendly yet stern face. I hastily drop to my knees below the dais and Erothar is quick to follow. I watch as Théoden's eyebrows rise at our response, but he turns his attention to Alyssa who is standing just to my left on the first step ascending towards the throne.

"Commander, your patrol went well I gather?" he asks her.

"Yes sir. All was quiet until we caught up with one of those groups of PKs just over our northernmost border. We rescued these two players whom were being attacked and dispatched most of the rogues. A few of the scoundrels fled and we made sure they had crossed the border before heading back to Edoras." Alyssa replies.

"Very good Commander." Théoden says before turning his attention to Erothar and me.

"The two of you were found trespassing onto Rohan land without an escort. Are you aware that such acts are not tolerated in my lands?"

"Yes sir we were." I reply. "We didn't have a choice but to do so. It was either cross over the border or stay and allow those PKers to send us back to the beginning."

Théoden nods.

"I can understand that you only came here under threat of your lives. That is why I shall be lenient this time. I can't allow it to go fully unpunished though as others may attempt to cross in if they hear I let a few players go."

Erothar and I exchange looks.

 _What is he going to do? Leniency yet punishment?_

"I will give the two of you a chance to prove yourselves worthy of standing on Rohan soil. You shall each spar off against one of my player officers until one of the combatants is unable to continue. If you are the victor, I shall give you entrance into my army. If you fail you shall have all of your gear removed and be escorted outside our borders to fend for yourself. You have one day to prepare before the match. Alyssa, please escort them to the lower cells and send them an armorer so they may attend to their gear before combat."

Alyssa bows and gestures for us to follow her. As we exit the hall I look back to see Théoden watching us leave with an expression of curiosity displayed on his face. Instead of going out the main doors, we turn right and descend a set of stairs leading to a lower level. Torches light the way as we silently march down the corridor, out boots sending echoes off down to who knows where. We take another turn and come to a row of four cells, two on each side. Shoyrue greets one of the guards who were playing cards off in a corner. He is a player who seems to like the darker look. A shield and sword rest against the wall beside him. Alyssa opens the only empty cell and Shoyrue shoves us in. The look on her face shows that she enjoyed doing that as she locks the door and tosses the keys to that same guard she greeted earlier.

"I shall send one of the armorers to come and repair your gear. Rest up and I bid you good luck tomorrow on your bouts. May your arms be strong and your sword not fail you." Alyssa says as she leaves the room.

"Great help that is. How are we supposed to prepare when there is barely enough room to move in here, let alone swing our swords?" Erothar grumbles.

"We will have to do the best we can." I say with a sigh, knowing that won't be easy either.

The armorer arrives and repairs our armor and weapons, which Alyssa had told Shoyrue to stack outside of the cell door. Once everything is repaired, the guard unlocks the cell door and hands us our armor. I briefly contemplate trying to overtake him and escape, but there are two other player guards in the room and I would rather not have to send them back to the beginning if I can avoid it, which I wouldn't be able to guarantee in this circumstance. The young guard locks the cell door once more and leaves us to our own devices. It feels good to have my armor equipped once more. The knowledge that more than a cloth shirt and trousers protect me gives me strength to start to think about tomorrow and what trials it will bring.

I lay on my back on one of the cold stone benches that serves as both a seat and a bed for prisoners in these cells. The armor protects me from the brunt of the cold, but I can still feel it begin to seep through the thick plating as I ponder our options for the morrow.

 _If we are to fight NPC officers, we shall both have an easy fight. If the officers are players, however, that is an entirely different matter. Almost every player past level 30 is stronger than the average NPC and both Erothar and I are higher than that. But a player officer could pose a very dangerous opponent given their level and class. It would probably be close quarters fighting so ranged players wouldn't fight very well, though at higher levels ranged players receive abilities to use some close ranged combat weapons which would be useful. My having to use a sword will hamper me a great deal against a properly equipped player. How I wish I had a staff to use. Erothar should be fine unless his opponent outranks him. Even then, he can hold his own fairly well._

"Do we even stand a chance?" I hear Erothar mutter under his breath.

"Depends on who we have to fight." I reply, equally quiet.

"I heard that there aren't any players in the Rhohirrim under level 50." He says, "We are just over level 40. If we have to fight one of the player officers, we are doomed."

"Then pray that we fight an NPC officer."

"Théoden is too smart to do that. By now he should know that players of level to be around here could easily defeat a regular NPC."

 _Yes, but how much does he want us to fight in his army for him._

"We will just have to wait and see and fight to the best of our ability." I say.

"Or…" Erothar starts to say.

I sit up and face him.

"Or what?" I prompt.

Erothar takes a glance around before leaning towards me. I lean even though I know I would be able to hear anything he says, even if he whispers.

"We could try to escape. Leave tonight under the cover of darkness. Slip away and make for the border."

I sit back and shake my head, wondering why he would ever even think of that as being an option.

"There is no way we would make it out of the building let alone past the city defenses and to the border." I retort.

"We could try."

"And be signing…"

I pause as one of the guards stands up. He walks by our door and I pray he hasn't heard our conversation. I am relieved when I hear a set of footsteps come down the stairs as a new guard comes to relieve our previous one. This one settles herself into the same chair across the way and I turn my attention back to Erothar.

"Be signing our death teleports back to Archet for you and to Erid Luin for me! No thanks. I'll take my chances fighting. At least then I am going down with honor against an opponent instead of with an arrow in the back as I try and flee like a scared rabbit." I whisper back.

"It isn't cowardly to run when you have the chance. 'He who runs away lives to fight another day' as some say."

"That is only for when the odds are stacked against you to the point that surrender would be your only other option, which isn't the case here."

"Please, Taurieth. I wouldn't make it far without you. We have come all this way together."

"I'm not leaving. Try to escape if you want to, but I won't help nor will I hinder. It's up to you, I don't rule your life."

Erothar gives me a look at this as if he wishes I did. I lay back down on the bench and try to prepare myself for tomorrow. I try to review the different moves I know with the sword, still keeping an ear open to hear all of the happenings around me as is my usual. At some point, the guards change out once more and I hear Erothar settle down on the other bench. I drift off into a partial doze where dreams come in weird and twisted ways. I see Erothar and I falling under our opponents blades. Waking up in our starting areas, separated and alone. So alone. I don't have Erothar or Sarung by my side anymore…

I am awoken from my dreams by the sound of a key being turned in the lock of the cell door. I sit up immediately and see a guard opening the door as Alyssa stands outside it holding our weapons.

"It is time for you to have your final preparations. Come with me." She says as she turns and heads out of the room.

 _Guess one day meant the rest of the day and the night. Can't fix anything now._

I am swift to follow and a sleepy Erothar is quickly by my side. The player guards who were on watch file in behind us as we march up the stairs back to the main level of the Golden Hall. There are few people in sight as the morning is still early. Those who are about stare at our little procession as we wind our way outside and down the paths to a larger open training area. There are many more people here, almost a hundred if I had to guess, and not all of them are NPCs. They part ways before Alyssa and I see a large circular arena has been staked out on the ground with a rope running around its circumference about 6 inches off the ground.

Alyssa halts and beckons for us to kneel as King Théoden makes his way through the crowd. He is dressed for light combat, making it apparent that he practices here as well with the soldiers. Both Erothar and I kneel down before him and he smiles down upon us.

"It is time for the two of you to face your opponents." King Théoden says. "They have been decided based on your level and weapon set. Remember, if you are victorious you may join the ranks of Rohan. If you fail, you will be escorted out of these lands with very little to save your hides should you run into trouble. Good luck."

We stand up as Théoden takes a place around the rim of the circle. Two players enter the circle; Shoyrue and a short man who seems to be eager to fight.

"I'll beat you black and blue sucker." He says, pointing at Erothar as he does.

 _And I get Shoyrue…great. She already hates me it seems. I highly doubt her selection was random at all._

Alyssa motions for Erothar and Hautyfool to step forwards.

"The first to fight is Erothar and Hautyfool. Here are your weapons, the first player to exit the circle or to have their health hit below 20% will be declared defeated. We don't want to send anyone back to Eriador."

She hands Erothar his sword and shield while giving the other man a fancy dagger and a hammer. Alyssa places a hand on my shoulder and directs me to stand back behind the rope circle, out of the combatants' way. The two men square up to each other and take ready positions. A horn is sounded and Erothar charges forwards, bearing down upon the short man. I start to think Hautyfool will be crushed under his onslaught, but just as Erothar is about to hit him with his shield he quickly sidesteps and strikes down upon Erothar's passing back with his hammer. Erothar hits the dirt but is up quickly, only a small amount of his health removed. He advances again, much more slowly this time. Hautyfool lunges forwards attempting to bring his hammer down upon Erothar's head. Erothar manages to duck out of the way and retaliate with a stab at his opponent's side. The fight continues in this fashion as they exchange blows, each managing to land a few on the other. Erothar is receiving the heavy end of the fight as his health is twice as depleted as Hautyfool's is. I am starting to think that Erothar will lose this fight when his stance changes. Erothar pulls his arms in close behind his shield and charges at Hautyfool. Hautyfool catches Erothar's shield with his hammer, but hooks it behind the shield in the notch near the top. Erothar takes advantage and wrenches away the weapon and strikes out with his sword. The strength of the blow forces Hautyfool to his knees and before he can get up again Erothar waylays upon him, quickly reducing his weaponless opponent to 20% health.

Alyssa steps forwards with a hand upraised, announcing the end of the bout. Erothar sheaths his sword and reaches out his hand to Hautyfool.

"Good fight. You almost had me a few times." He says.

Hautyfool eyes the proffered hand before accepting Erothar's help up. He smiles at Erothar and claps him on the shoulder.

"That was a good fight. I will have to remember that move for my next battle." Hautyfool replies.

They exit the circle as Shoyrue steps out of the crowd. She has he bow across her back but is also wielding a one handed sword and a long spear. I step into the circle as well and am handed back my single one handed sword.

 _This is gonna suck so much. I have only my sword with no skills to back up my attacks. She has a spear to fend me off plus her sword. I am so screwed it isn't funny._

Alyssa re-announces the stakes at hand and gives our names. I take on a ready stance and study Shoyrue as Alyssa steps out of the ring. As soon as the horn is sounded Shoyrue attacks. She stabs at me with her spear which I deflect with my sword only to narrowly avoid being skewered with her own blade. I try to attack with a slash to her head, but am blocked by her sword and am rewarded for my ineffectiveness with a hit to the helm by her spear shaft. My vision blurred as I backed away to try and regain some ground.

 _This isn't gonna work. I do not have the skills or strength to defeat her. I only have one other option…_

I work my way towards the edge of the circle as I ward off her spear thrusts and sword slashes. I am only a step away from the rope when Shoyrue smiles and charges at me. I brace myself for her charge. She is almost on top of me when I quickly side step and hit her across the back with my sword. She loses her balance and trips over the rope, outside of the circle. She jumps up to charge back at me but Alyssa grabs her by the arm.

"Taurieth is the winner." She announces.

"She cheated!" Shoyrue shouts, effectively silencing the cheering crowd.

"She used her mind instead of her strength." King Théoden says as he approaches the circle. "That gave her the victory. You cannot win every battle by mere feats of strength alone."

"Yes, both Taurieth and Erothar win the duels. By your permission, King Théoden, they may join the Rohirrim and fight for Rohan." Alyssa says as she brings Erothar forwards.

"They have proven themselves worthy of the crest of Rohan. They may fight and join your soldiers if they wish to do so, Commander Alyssa."

Erothar and I nod our acceptance and salute King Théoden and Alyssa. The crowd begins to disperse and we follow our commander to the barracks assigned to her soldiers. She gives us directions on what to do to outfit us with the necessary gear and to await orders on what to do in the morning. We salute her once more as she leaves us to relax for the remainder of the day. I collapse onto the bunk assigned to me and sign with relief. I had made it. I am now a member of the Rohirrim.


	8. Riders of Rohan

I slowly stand up with my hands raised in surrender to the pissed elven face leering down at me. The woman has middling length straight light brown hair with a delicate coronet holding back the flowing tresses. Her furious green eyes seem to burn into my being with a mix of hate and disgust. Her armor is of the type that would have been hand crafted for a hunter, light yet with very few chinks where a blade or arrow could penetrate in.

"I should kill you where you stand for trespassing on Rohan land," she spits out, "I usually do. However, my commanding officer wishes to speak to the brave players who faced down the band of rogues."

Her voice drips with Sarcasm at the 'brave players' and I have a feeling she does not get along with her 'commanding officer' at all. She uses her bow to herd Erothar and I towards a player seated on a beautiful pure white horse. The player dismounts and removes their helm to survey the two of us. The woman's hair is pitch black and cropped short. Vivid blue eyes are a stark contrast to her hair, but they seem to be more curious than angry.

"I am Alyssa. Champion. I am the Commander of this group of riders. I was told that the two of you were the players who bravely faced down the rogue players as they pursued you."

"There were three of us." Erothar says. "But Baronlief died when the players fled and one threw a spear at him."

"I am sorry that we weren't able to come in time to save him." Alyssa replied solemly. "It is a sad day when a player is sent back. I am grateful to you though as those players have plagued our borders for the past few weeks. For that reason I will take you to meet King Théoden instead of banishing you from our lands."

"And we thank you for that kindness, Commander Alyssa." I say politely with a small bow.

"Shoyrue, find mounts for these two. Then assemble everyone for the ride back to Edoras." Alyssa says.

The elf with the bow, Shoyrue I guess, gives a small salute before prodding me none too gently in the back with the tip of said bow. Erothar and I follow her towards a group of horses tied to other riders mounts. She grabs two of them and thrusts the reigns into our hands. We mount up and are quickly surrounded by riders in a tight formation.

 _Even if we wanted to try to escape on horse there is no open path to do so. And even if we did manage to make a break for it, these riders would probably catch us before we could get more than a hundred yards away._

All of the players follow Alyssa and Shoyrue pulls the leads on our horses to make them follow as well. The column winds its way around the spurs of rock dotting the landscape. Everyone talks quietly around us, but every time I try to ask one of the riders something they give us a stern look which discourages further conversation. The silence drags on with only the sound of the horses as they wade through the tall grass to be heard besides the natural sound of wildlife.

One of the riders at the front of the column gives a shout and the riders hasten their pace. I look over at Erothar and he just shrugs as our mounts are pulled forwards faster by the surging stream of animals around us. We crest a small hill and see what has excited everyone. On the next rise, a small city sprawls across the slopes of a large plateau. The crest of which is dominated by a large hall that glints in the afternoon sunlight. Edoras. The City of the Golden Hall. Home to Théoden, Kind of Rohan. I can remember reading about this place in the books and seeing the version that the set builders had created for the movie trilogy, but I had never seen it for myself in-game until this moment.

The buildings had the same layout as the movie had presented them, but everything seemed to be more vibrant and alive in person. Several NPCs were moving about preforming their daily tasks essential to their lives. I also spotted several who were in uniforms signaling that they were part of the Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan. Alyssa signals for the column to halt below the steps leading up to the Golden Hall. She signals to the banner carrier who waves the Rohan banner in a curious pattern. Most of the riders peel away from the column and scatter down various streets into the rest of the city.

 _That must have been her way of dismissing everyone. Handy as it keeps her from having to shout out her orders. I wonder what we are supposed to do. See Théoden perhaps. Hopefully be granted clemency as we were being chased by rogues. It was either cross the border or be killed so we didn't have much choice._

My mental preparation is cut short as Alyssa beckons for Erothar and I to dismount and come with her. Shoyrue takes up a position behind us as if we would still chance making a run for it.

 _How stupid does she think we are? We are deep in the Rohan lands and are in the center of Edoras! At least half of their army is scattered around us throughout the city. We wouldn't make it to the gates before we were caught. So do you really think we are going to run away?_

Alyssa leads us up the steps towards the two intricately carved oaken doors that guard the entrance to the Hall. Four guards stand at their posts beside the doors and they cross their spears in front of the doors as Alyssa steps up to them.

"State name, rank, and intent." One of the guards calls out.

" Alyssa, Commander of Rohan. I am here to give report to King Théoden and to present some prisoners to him." Alyssa replies firmly.

The guard nods and singly enters the Hall while we must wait outside. The wind is starting to pick up and I can feel the temperature dropping as we stand there exposed at the top of the hill. After what seems like forever, the guard returns and waves Alyssa in through the door. Shoyrue prods my back as if I am not walking fast enough for her. I hasten my pace to be directly behind Alyssa as we pass through those heavy doors. I am struck breathless as I behold the interior of the fabled Hall. Intricate carvings like those upon the doors course their way around almost every facet of the building. Immense columns support the ceiling, creating a central walkway with two smaller alcoves upon either side. A great hearth contains a smoldering fire, giving enough heat to make the room pleasantly warm. Directly at the head of the room sits a great chair that sports the finest carvings of them all. Horses' heads arch over the back to touch with foreheads butted together. Their manes flow down the chair to the armrests. The rest are no doubt beautiful as well, but I can only see half of them as they are obscured by the figure of the man sitting upon the throne. Théoden, King of Rohan. A golden helm glints through blonde hair, which frames a friendly yet stern face. I hastily drop to my knees below the dais and Erothar is quick to follow. I watch as Théoden's eyebrows rise at our response, but he turns his attention to Alyssa who is standing just to my left on the first step ascending towards the throne.

"Commander, your patrol went well I gather?" he asks her.

"Yes sir. All was quiet until we caught up with one of those groups of PKs just over our northernmost border. We rescued these two players whom were being attacked and dispatched most of the rogues. A few of the scoundrels fled and we made sure they had crossed the border before heading back to Edoras." Alyssa replies.

"Very good Commander." Théoden says before turning his attention to Erothar and me.

"The two of you were found trespassing onto Rohan land without an escort. Are you aware that such acts are not tolerated in my lands?"

"Yes sir we were." I reply. "We didn't have a choice but to do so. It was either cross over the border or stay and allow those PKers to send us back to the beginning."

Théoden nods.

"I can understand that you only came here under threat of your lives. That is why I shall be lenient this time. I can't allow it to go fully unpunished though as others may attempt to cross in if they hear I let a few players go."

Erothar and I exchange looks.

 _What is he going to do? Leniency yet punishment?_

"I will give the two of you a chance to prove yourselves worthy of standing on Rohan soil. You shall each spar off against one of my player officers until one of the combatants is unable to continue. If you are the victor, I shall give you entrance into my army. If you fail you shall have all of your gear removed and be escorted outside our borders to fend for yourself. You have one day to prepare before the match. Alyssa, please escort them to the lower cells and send them an armorer so they may attend to their gear before combat."

Alyssa bows and gestures for us to follow her. As we exit the hall I look back to see Théoden watching us leave with an expression of curiosity displayed on his face. Instead of going out the main doors, we turn right and descend a set of stairs leading to a lower level. Torches light the way as we silently march down the corridor, out boots sending echoes off down to who knows where. We take another turn and come to a row of four cells, two on each side. Shoyrue greets one of the guards who were playing cards off in a corner. He is a player who seems to like the darker look. A shield and sword rest against the wall beside him. Alyssa opens the only empty cell and Shoyrue shoves us in. The look on her face shows that she enjoyed doing that as she locks the door and tosses the keys to that same guard she greeted earlier.

"I shall send one of the armorers to come and repair your gear. Rest up and I bid you good luck tomorrow on your bouts. May your arms be strong and your sword not fail you." Alyssa says as she leaves the room.

"Great help that is. How are we supposed to prepare when there is barely enough room to move in here, let alone swing our swords?" Erothar grumbles.

"We will have to do the best we can." I say with a sigh, knowing that won't be easy either.

The armorer arrives and repairs our armor and weapons, which Alyssa had told Shoyrue to stack outside of the cell door. Once everything is repaired, the guard unlocks the cell door and hands us our armor. I briefly contemplate trying to overtake him and escape, but there are two other player guards in the room and I would rather not have to send them back to the beginning if I can avoid it, which I wouldn't be able to guarantee in this circumstance. The young guard locks the cell door once more and leaves us to our own devices. It feels good to have my armor equipped once more. The knowledge that more than a cloth shirt and trousers protect me gives me strength to start to think about tomorrow and what trials it will bring.

I lay on my back on one of the cold stone benches that serves as both a seat and a bed for prisoners in these cells. The armor protects me from the brunt of the cold, but I can still feel it begin to seep through the thick plating as I ponder our options for the morrow.

 _If we are to fight NPC officers, we shall both have an easy fight. If the officers are players, however, that is an entirely different matter. Almost every player past level 30 is stronger than the average NPC and both Erothar and I are higher than that. But a player officer could pose a very dangerous opponent given their level and class. It would probably be close quarters fighting so ranged players wouldn't fight very well, though at higher levels ranged players receive abilities to use some close ranged combat weapons which would be useful. My having to use a sword will hamper me a great deal against a properly equipped player. How I wish I had a staff to use. Erothar should be fine unless his opponent outranks him. Even then, he can hold his own fairly well._

"Do we even stand a chance?" I hear Erothar mutter under his breath.

"Depends on who we have to fight." I reply, equally quiet.

"I heard that there aren't any players in the Rhohirrim under level 50." He says, "We are just over level 40. If we have to fight one of the player officers, we are doomed."

"Then pray that we fight an NPC officer."

"Théoden is too smart to do that. By now he should know that players of level to be around here could easily defeat a regular NPC."

 _Yes, but how much does he want us to fight in his army for him._

"We will just have to wait and see and fight to the best of our ability." I say.

"Or…" Erothar starts to say.

I sit up and face him.

"Or what?" I prompt.

Erothar takes a glance around before leaning towards me. I lean even though I know I would be able to hear anything he says, even if he whispers.

"We could try to escape. Leave tonight under the cover of darkness. Slip away and make for the border."

I sit back and shake my head, wondering why he would ever even think of that as being an option.

"There is no way we would make it out of the building let alone past the city defenses and to the border." I retort.

"We could try."

"And be signing…"

I pause as one of the guards stands up. He walks by our door and I pray he hasn't heard our conversation. I am relieved when I hear a set of footsteps come down the stairs as a new guard comes to relieve our previous one. This one settles herself into the same chair across the way and I turn my attention back to Erothar.

"Be signing our death teleports back to Archet for you and to Erid Luin for me! No thanks. I'll take my chances fighting. At least then I am going down with honor against an opponent instead of with an arrow in the back as I try and flee like a scared rabbit." I whisper back.

"It isn't cowardly to run when you have the chance. 'He who runs away lives to fight another day' as some say."

"That is only for when the odds are stacked against you to the point that surrender would be your only other option, which isn't the case here."

"Please, Taurieth. I wouldn't make it far without you. We have come all this way together."

"I'm not leaving. Try to escape if you want to, but I won't help nor will I hinder. It's up to you, I don't rule your life."

Erothar gives me a look at this as if he wishes I did. I lay back down on the bench and try to prepare myself for tomorrow. I try to review the different moves I know with the sword, still keeping an ear open to hear all of the happenings around me as is my usual. At some point, the guards change out once more and I hear Erothar settle down on the other bench. I drift off into a partial doze where dreams come in weird and twisted ways. I see Erothar and I falling under our opponents blades. Waking up in our starting areas, separated and alone. So alone. I don't have Erothar or Sarung by my side anymore…

I am awoken from my dreams by the sound of a key being turned in the lock of the cell door. I sit up immediately and see a guard opening the door as Alyssa stands outside it holding our weapons.

"It is time for you to have your final preparations. Come with me." She says as she turns and heads out of the room.

 _Guess one day meant the rest of the day and the night. Can't fix anything now._

I am swift to follow and a sleepy Erothar is quickly by my side. The player guards who were on watch file in behind us as we march up the stairs back to the main level of the Golden Hall. There are few people in sight as the morning is still early. Those who are about stare at our little procession as we wind our way outside and down the paths to a larger open training area. There are many more people here, almost a hundred if I had to guess, and not all of them are NPCs. They part ways before Alyssa and I see a large circular arena has been staked out on the ground with a rope running around its circumference about 6 inches off the ground.

Alyssa halts and beckons for us to kneel as King Théoden makes his way through the crowd. He is dressed for light combat, making it apparent that he practices here as well with the soldiers. Both Erothar and I kneel down before him and he smiles down upon us.

"It is time for the two of you to face your opponents." King Théoden says. "They have been decided based on your level and weapon set. Remember, if you are victorious you may join the ranks of Rohan. If you fail, you will be escorted out of these lands with very little to save your hides should you run into trouble. Good luck."

We stand up as Théoden takes a place around the rim of the circle. Two players enter the circle; Shoyrue and a short man who seems to be eager to fight.

"I'll beat you black and blue sucker." He says, pointing at Erothar as he does.

 _And I get Shoyrue…great. She already hates me it seems. I highly doubt her selection was random at all._

Alyssa motions for Erothar and Hautyfool to step forwards.

"The first to fight is Erothar and Hautyfool. Here are your weapons, the first player to exit the circle or to have their health hit below 20% will be declared defeated. We don't want to send anyone back to Eriador."

She hands Erothar his sword and shield while giving the other man a fancy dagger and a hammer. Alyssa places a hand on my shoulder and directs me to stand back behind the rope circle, out of the combatants' way. The two men square up to each other and take ready positions. A horn is sounded and Erothar charges forwards, bearing down upon the short man. I start to think Hautyfool will be crushed under his onslaught, but just as Erothar is about to hit him with his shield he quickly sidesteps and strikes down upon Erothar's passing back with his hammer. Erothar hits the dirt but is up quickly, only a small amount of his health removed. He advances again, much more slowly this time. Hautyfool lunges forwards attempting to bring his hammer down upon Erothar's head. Erothar manages to duck out of the way and retaliate with a stab at his opponent's side. The fight continues in this fashion as they exchange blows, each managing to land a few on the other. Erothar is receiving the heavy end of the fight as his health is twice as depleted as Hautyfool's is. I am starting to think that Erothar will lose this fight when his stance changes. Erothar pulls his arms in close behind his shield and charges at Hautyfool. Hautyfool catches Erothar's shield with his hammer, but hooks it behind the shield in the notch near the top. Erothar takes advantage and wrenches away the weapon and strikes out with his sword. The strength of the blow forces Hautyfool to his knees and before he can get up again Erothar waylays upon him, quickly reducing his weaponless opponent to 20% health.

Alyssa steps forwards with a hand upraised, announcing the end of the bout. Erothar sheaths his sword and reaches out his hand to Hautyfool.

"Good fight. You almost had me a few times." He says.

Hautyfool eyes the proffered hand before accepting Erothar's help up. He smiles at Erothar and claps him on the shoulder.

"That was a good fight. I will have to remember that move for my next battle." Hautyfool replies.

They exit the circle as Shoyrue steps out of the crowd. She has he bow across her back but is also wielding a one handed sword and a long spear. I step into the circle as well and am handed back my single one handed sword.

 _This is gonna suck so much. I have only my sword with no skills to back up my attacks. She has a spear to fend me off plus her sword. I am so screwed it isn't funny._

Alyssa re-announces the stakes at hand and gives our names. I take on a ready stance and study Shoyrue as Alyssa steps out of the ring. As soon as the horn is sounded Shoyrue attacks. She stabs at me with her spear which I deflect with my sword only to narrowly avoid being skewered with her own blade. I try to attack with a slash to her head, but am blocked by her sword and am rewarded for my ineffectiveness with a hit to the helm by her spear shaft. My vision blurred as I backed away to try and regain some ground.

 _This isn't gonna work. I do not have the skills or strength to defeat her. I only have one other option…_

I work my way towards the edge of the circle as I ward off her spear thrusts and sword slashes. I am only a step away from the rope when Shoyrue smiles and charges at me. I brace myself for her charge. She is almost on top of me when I quickly side step and hit her across the back with my sword. She loses her balance and trips over the rope, outside of the circle. She jumps up to charge back at me but Alyssa grabs her by the arm.

"Taurieth is the winner." She announces.

"She cheated!" Shoyrue shouts, effectively silencing the cheering crowd.

"She used her mind instead of her strength." King Théoden says as he approaches the circle. "That gave her the victory. You cannot win every battle by mere feats of strength alone."

"Yes, both Taurieth and Erothar win the duels. By your permission, King Théoden, they may join the Rohirrim and fight for Rohan." Alyssa says as she brings Erothar forwards.

"They have proven themselves worthy of the crest of Rohan. They may fight and join your soldiers if they wish to do so, Commander Alyssa."

Erothar and I nod our acceptance and salute King Théoden and Alyssa. The crowd begins to disperse and we follow our commander to the barracks assigned to her soldiers. She gives us directions on what to do to outfit us with the necessary gear and to await orders on what to do in the morning. We salute her once more as she leaves us to relax for the remainder of the day. I collapse onto the bunk assigned to me and sign with relief. I had made it. I am now a member of the Rohirrim.


End file.
